Maniples

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of liturgical vestment worn by priests, symbolizing the purity of their service
2. A narrow strip of cloth used as an adornment or a support in ecclesiastical contexts
3. Historical reference to a division of soldiers or a tactical unit in Roman military formations

Etymology: The word is the plural of "maniple", and the object it names is a narrow strip of cloth that hangs from a priest's wrist or arm during Mass. Its name comes from Latin "manipulus", meaning a bundle or handful, built from "manus" (hand) and a form of "pleo" (to fill). The idea is that the strip was originally carried in the hand, which is why a vestment took its name from a handful. The same Latin word also meant a unit of soldiers. A Roman maniple was a company of about 120 to 200 men, and the military sense is the older one that English inherited alongside the liturgical sense. The two uses reflect the same notion of a small group gathered together in one hand. One further possibility is that the vestment descends from a handkerchief or napkin that Roman consuls carried as a sign of rank, though this link is uncertain. Medieval Latin also used "manipulus" for a drachm, through a confusion with a Greek word meaning a sheaf of grain.